


A Fisherman and a Mermaid

by Aquaphoric



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Inappropriate Nicknames, Language Used Rising this fic to a T rating, M/M, Mermaids, More tags will be added as the story progresses, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-07 03:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14662128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquaphoric/pseuds/Aquaphoric
Summary: When you think of a pirate, you think of someone who hunts treasure, but those are really just the more well known pirates; there were more than those, like fishing pirates.Kokichi Ouma was one of those mere fishing pirates, hoping to earn enough cash to buy his own boat to become one of the most feared pirates of the seas- but an unexpected catch might just change his plans.





	1. My Document for this Fic is called "Mermaids Bitch [Dabs]"

**Author's Note:**

> i thought of this au the other night on twitter, then realized i should totally write it since its MerMay, so yeet
> 
> Thanks to my wonderful friend kate/cosmicpoet for beta'ing this!! Ur the best <3

A common misconception about pirates is that they sailed the seven seas searching for treasure, with full beards and hooks for hands and peglegs, and that they spoke with phrases like “arrrrr”, “shiver me timbers”, and the like among their sentences. Well, this is partially true, but there were more pirates than the treasure hunting ones, those are just more well known. Really, there are other kinds of pirates around who help their villages and towns with whatever needs to be done at sea, majorly fishing.

Kokichi Ouma was one of those fishing pirates.

It wasn’t like he wanted to be that; he was more interested in being a treasure hunter, with his own crew to command. He had fantasized about it a lot, with his friends being his crew, travelling around for treasure while looting rival pirates, becoming the most feared pirate on the seas so that his name would be written down in the history books and he would never be forgotten. But life doesn’t work like that, unfortunately.

Kokichi was too poor to afford a big fancy ship, but that wasn’t going to stop him from being on one. He believed someone popular had to start somewhere, and took up a job in becoming part of a fishing pirate crew, even if the fish smelled badly, and everyone on the ship was kinda boring. He convinced himself that this was just training until he became an actual pirate, then he’d be free to do whatever he wanted with his friends, as he was unallowed to do his usual pranks and petty thievery while being a part of the crew unless he wanted to get fired. Some days, though, it seemed like his dream would never be achieved and he’d be stuck as a fishing pirate for the rest of his life.

Until something changed it.

It had just been a regular night, and Kokichi was trying to get a good night’s rest in his quarters below deck, though the rocking of the ship made it hard, and the snoring of someone else made it even harder. Still, he tried to get himself to sleep by thinking of good memories, and it nearly worked until a rather loud commotion started up on the main deck.

 _‘Ugh, seriously?’_ He thought, _'Do they really need to be this loud? It’s probably not even that impor-’_

That thought was interrupted when he heard, “In all o’ my years, I ain’t never thought I’d get to see a mermaid!”

 _‘What the hell? A mermaid?’_ Hearing ‘mermaid’ certainly wouldn’t get anyone to sleep, especially not Kokichi. Cautiously, he slipped out of his bed, tiptoeing toward the stairs, and peeking out the door that opened to the main deck. It was a full moon tonight, so Kokichi could slightly see the main deck illuminated. He was disappointed to see that he couldn’t get a look at the mermaid as nearly everyone in the crew was crowded around it, but he thought he could see the moonlight reflecting off a shiny...tail. It looked like it was struggling, apparent by the attempted but weak thrashing. Kokichi was almost sure he could hear whining noises over everyone else. 

A member of the crew, a girl, spoke up, “So, uh, what should we do with it? We can’t let it out of the net, right?” 

“Yeah, it might try to escape if we untangle it. And, uh, I’m not sure, for now though we should probably put it in some water, so it doesn’t dry out,” Another voice, a male one, said. “You two,” they said, pointing at a couple, ”Go get container we use for the smaller fish we catch.” 

“Yes, sir!” 

Kokichi saw whoever had been told to do that run to the door of the below deck where they kept their catches, returning almost immediately with a medium-sized tank. He watched as the tank was brought over and his crew mates lifted the mermaid to the tank-

A sudden screeching pierced the night air, loud enough that Kokichi needed to cover his ears.

“Agh, my ears! What the hell!”

“Get it in the tank!”

“I didn’t know a mermaid could be this loud!”

Over the screeching, Kokichi heard a splash of water and the disturbing sound was quelled, replaced seconds after by muffled, mournful howl-like cries. After the crew recovered from the unexpected event, they picked up the tank and carried it back down below deck. Upon coming back up, it was declared that everyone should go to bed so that they could decide what to do with the mermaid in the morning. Everyone seemed to agree, going to their respective cabins on the ship.

Once the coast was clear, Kokichi quietly tiptoed across deck to the door that led to below deck, being sure to be quiet as possible. The below deck was almost entirely dark, aside from a faint light from a lantern near the end of the stairs and...tiny, stationary, always glowing fireflies? As he crept closer, Kokichi realized these weren’t fireflies, but rather glowing spots on the mermaid’s face that reminded him of freckles.

Kokichi grabbed the lantern, squatting down and bringing it close to the mermaid’s tank to get a better look at it. Upon the light shining on it, the mermaid attempted to back into the wall to get away, but that was near impossible considering how the tank seemed unfit to hold something the size of a human.

“Calm down,” he said, “I just wanna get a look at you.”

From what the light provided, noticeable details were provided; the mermaid had short, blueish-black hair, with a few strands sticking straight up on its head. Its eyes were a grey-gold, its skin was light brown, and its tail was a blue-green color. The net had the mermaid’s hands trapped over its chest, but he could catch that its chest had a covering of leaves. It was a bit harder to notice, but looking closely Kokichi could see gills on the mermaid’s neck and sharp claws on its hands. _‘Its...prettier than I expected,’_ Kokichi thought. _‘But it looks pretty scared too.’_

He looked down in thought, considering doing something. He could set it free, but then that would risk him being fired from his job, and it paid more than any other job he could take. He could take it home when they got back to land, but that seemed unlikely when he thought about it; there were many others on the ship who would probably be better choices for taking care of a freaking mermaid. Kokichi groaned, both thoughts coming to a dead end, and looked back up. The mermaid was staring at him, looking more confused at Kokichi than scared of him now.

“I was just thinking,” he said, “I want to get you out of here, but I also don’t want to lose my job, you know? It’s kinda important I keep it unless I became an activist for mermaid freedom.” The mermaid still stared, only responding with a head tilt and small chirp that sounded like confusion. “You have no idea what I’m saying, do you?” The mermaid gave no response.

Kokichi sighed. Well, it wasn’t like he expected a basically glorified fish to understand human language. He wondered what mermaid language was like. He read stories about sirens leading pirates to their deaths using singing, maybe sirens and mermaids were the same thing and used singing to communicate? Kokichi couldn’t imagine singing all the time just to talk to someone, though maybe it was different for mermaids. Why was he thinking so hard about how mermaids talked to each other? Okay, he definitely needed sleep.

He stood back up, putting the lantern down and stretching. “Well, I’m gonna go back to bed, see ya in the morning, I guess.” But when Kokichi turned around to walk up the stairs, the mermaid started to make distressed whining and chirping noises. Kokichi turned back around, and the mermaid stopped making noises. 

He walked back to the to the tank. “Would you prefer if I slept down here, Mermaid?” he asked, even though he knew it wouldn’t understand him. It felt weird calling the mermaid ‘Mermaid’, as if Mermaid was its name, but he didn’t know its actual name. Did mermaids have names? To try and answer his question, Kokichi started to go back up the stairs again, and the mermaid once again made more distressed noises, though quieter this time. _‘Well, guess that answers my question,’_ he thought, coming back down.

“Alright, alright,” he said, “I won’t go back up, though I don’t expect how you expect me to sleep comfortably down here.” The mermaid didn’t seem to be concerned with that, just relieved that Kokichi was apparently going to stay down there. Kokichi sat against the wall and laid down, putting his hands under his head and curling up. _‘Just like old times, I suppose.’_

If only Kokichi knew how this mermaid would end up changing his life for the better.


	2. Local Dude finds Himself in The Care of A Big Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after the mermaid is caught

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I meant to get this out during mermay but i wasnt able to whoops,,, but i'm still getting this out so yeet (btw see if u can spot the john mulaney reference in this chapter :3c)
> 
> Dont know what else to say sooooo happy pride month, be gay, and do crimes [dab]
> 
> Thanks to Kate/cosmicpoet for beta'ing this!!

“Hey, what the hell are you doing down here? Wake up!”

Kokichi jolted awake at the sudden voice, slowly opening his eyes. The first thing he noticed was light filtering in the room from above, and the second thing he saw were spiked boots, quickly realizing without even having to look at her dangerously short pink dress that it was Miu Iruma, one of his crewmates.

He groaned, “Ugh, what do you want, whore? I was trying to sleep, thank you very much.”

“The captain told me to check up on this damn mermaid and bring it up to the main deck, and I find you sleeping right next to it!” Miu said, her expression angry-looking, though Kokichi could see that her cheeks were dusted pink; most likely at being called a whore. 

Kokichi wouldn’t consider himself and Miu ‘friends’, even though they tended to hang out a bit -- whether it be on the job or at home -- Kokichi preferred they be known as acquaintances. The only reason they knew each other was of a mutual thing between Kokichi’s friend, Rantaro Amami, and Miu’s girlfriend, Tsumugi Shirogane. Still, he kinda liked to hang out with her, and it was fun to tease her and call her names just for her reactions.

Kokichi pouted, “What’s so wrong with little ol’ me sleeping down here, huh? Do you really want me to die from exhaustion, Miu? I-I have a family to feed!” Crocodile tears began to well up in his eyes. This was another thing he liked to do occasionally, mostly to Miu.

“You know that’s not what I meant! Now stop crying!” Miu yelled, plenty used to the crocodile tears act to not be affected by it anymore.

Kokichi’s tears immediately dried as if they were never there in the first place, and he giggled. He stood up and stretched, “But you’re right, I should get out of here, I’m starving after all.” 

He looked over to the mermaid, and noticed it’d probably been watching them talk as its head was tilted in confusion. When Kokichi looked at it though, it turned its head away. _‘Is it embarrassed that I caught it staring?’_

“That mermaid’s freaking weird,” Miu said. Kokichi didn’t notice that she had turned her head to look at it. “Anyways, hey, Gokuhara! Get down here! We got a mermaid to transport!”

A rather large figure stood in the doorway, blocking the light coming in. The figure began descending the stairs. “Coming, Iruma-san! Ah, good morning, Ouma-kun! How are you this morning?”

Another crewmate of Kokichi’s, Gonta Gokuhara. He easily towered everyone on board, but he was a gentle soul despite his appearance. He worked on the boat to help with the heavy duty like the fish tanks or barrels full of supplies. Gonta was also rather dense, which tended to annoy Kokichi at times, but his good heart and sweet intentions meant that it was easy for Kokichi to tolerate it when Gonta fell behind in understanding others.

“ _Go~od_ morning, Gonta,” Kokichi said, returning the greeting. “I slept terribly, these wooden boards just do hell on my back!”

Miu growled, but said nothing else. That had been a lie, Kokichi had slept fine. He replied, “Ah, Gonta’s sorry to hear that Ouma-kun! Gonta hopes you sleep better tonight though!” He was always such a positive person and wanted what he thought was best for everyone. That was boring, in Kokichi’s opinion. Then again, people were predictable, and once he figured someone out, they became boring -- it was unfortunately just how Kokichi lived his boring, boring life.

Gonta picked up one side of the tank, and Miu picked up the other. Kokichi saw the mermaid had a panicked look on its face and began to make distressed noises, not knowing what was going to happen. He wished he could tell it nobody was going to hurt it. A memory echoed in Kokichi’s mind.

_Kid, you’re comin’ with me._

_N...no, pl-please…do-don’t…_

Kokichi sighed, following Gonta and Miu up the stairs. Upon reaching the main deck, where nearly everyone else on the ship was milling about, they put down the tank in the middle of the area. Almost immediately, everyone made a small circle around the tank, trying to get a good look at the mermaid. Something in Kokichi wanted him to try and get in the circle to make sure the mermaid wasn’t uncomfortable with all the sudden attention, but the group was too crowded together like a swarm of bugs to let him get past. _'Wait, why am I so concerned for this mermaid?’_

“That’s enough, all of you.”

Everyone turned their head at the sudden voice, belonging to the captain of their ship -- Kyousuke Munakata, who was standing at the top of the stairs to the forecastle of the ship. He was majorly respected among even other crewships of fishing pirates as he was able to reach quota early and using the extra time he had to go over that; he was the greatest contributor to supplying their village with food, so he definitely deserved the respect.

They all backed off and watched as he slowly descended and walked over to the tank. Kyousuke crouched down, now face-to-face with the mermaid. Kokichi could see how nervous it was, with its eyes wide and trying to back away. Kyousuke only stared. His staring felt like it lasted an eternity, though it was at most maybe five minutes, but everyone’s minds raced at what their captain could be thinking while staring at the creature which wasn’t supposed to exist.

Kyousuke pulled out his self-defense knife. The mermaid’s eyes widened. “Someone, come help me hold it down.”

Immediately, there was a clamor as Kyousuke leaned over the tank and the mermaid began to thrash around. Gonta and a particularly tough looking girl hesitantly came over, even with their concerned faces; the former holding down the mermaid’s tail and hips, the latter holding down its shoulders, leaving the mermaid to only be able to struggle uselessly. Kyousuke neared his knife near its skin, and the mermaid began to screech -- _loudly_. Even though it was underwater, it was still loud enough that everyone sans Kyousuke, Gonta, and the girl needed to cover their ears. The only thing louder than it, Kokichi believed, was the nervous pounding of his heart.

 _‘Is Munakata-chan really going to kill it? But he...he can’t do that!’_ Something in Kokichi wanted to yell at Kyousuke to stop, but it looks like a few others beat him to the punch.

“Munakata-san, what are you doing!”

“Stop it!”

“This is unacceptable!”

Kyousuke ignored them all, continuing whatever he was doing to the poor mermaid. Something, an anger, was rising in Kokichi. He wanted to stop Kyousuke, to step forward and yank the knife from his hand to throw it overboard, _‘Just stop hurting it-!’_

The three at the tank stood up, the mermaid stopped screeching, and at Kyousuke’s sides were his bloodless knife and a cut up net. “Iruma,” he calls out, “Do you think you can get your friend to fix up this net? I know she’s good with threads.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll be sure she fixes it!” Miu replies, taking the net from his hands.

Someone speaks up, “B-Boss, what was that for?”

“The net was too tangled up to release it by regular means,” Kyousuke says, “and even if we had tried to untangle it, it might’ve tried to bite or attack, so it needed to be held down while I cut it out of the net. I didn't mean to scare it, I apologize if I made you think I had been intentionally harming it.”

Before anyone could reply, a bell on the other side of the deck began to ring. Multiple voices began clamoring, nearly everyone but Kokichi walking to the other door, which led to the dining room below deck. Maybe they just wanted to forget what they had just seen, though it was fortunate the scene hadn’t been allowed to stretch into an uncomfortable silence.

When everyone had filed to the dining room, it was only Kokichi left with the mermaid. He turned his gaze to its tank, and saw it was curled into itself like a ball, whimpering and crying quietly. Kokichi wouldn’t deny that his heart ached a bit upon seeing that, but he didn’t know what to do to try and comfort it, until he remembered something that used helped him from a long time ago.

He ran to the dining room, where mostly everyone -- a few plateless people were patiently waiting for their breakfast -- was sitting at a long table and eating bread, miso soup, eggs, rice, drinking tea, and conversing with each other about things Kokichi couldn’t care about at the moment. He walked into the kitchen, and was greeted by their hired maid, Kirumi Tojo.

Before Kokichi could greet her, she spoke first. “Good morning, Ouma-kun,” she said, “I would ask what would you like for breakfast, but the selection is very limited and I must apologize for that; the boss told me to keep it small as we will be returning home in about a day, so we shouldn’t waste food.

“But, since you’re down here,” she says, “would you like to help me make the rest of breakfast? I could use the help.”

She definitely didn’t, she was just asking because when she had been first recruited, despite her protests, Kyousuke had instructed the crew to help her when they could. Kokichi knew this due to the fact that he -- scratch that, near everyone had heard of her workings before, hired by the great and rich and higher class; he supposed Kyousuke had ordered the crew to help with her job so they didn’t end up getting lazy, but still.

He agreed to help, though, and Kirumi set him on cooking the eggs while she checked on the miso soup and cut up the bread. Kokichi would never admit it, but cooking was a bit relaxing for him. He just liked doing it ever since he was young; it doesn’t bother him that he doesn’t remember why he likes it.

The room was quiet, save for the occasional pop from the eggs and the _thunk_ -ing of Kirumi’s cutting knife against the counter; Kokichi would’ve filled the room up with the sound of his voice, as he was partly infamous in the crew for that, but he was deep in thought, unsure of how to voice his question to Kirumi. _‘Hey, Mom, can you give me a fish to feed to the possibly horribly traumatized mermaid?’_ That wouldn’t work, was Kirumi even aware of the mermaid? Would she think he was crazy if he asked that? And he would probably sound even more ridiculous if he attempted to pass it off as a lie. _‘This is hard.’_

“Ouma-kun, make sure those eggs don’t burn.” He was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by Kirumi, hurriedly flipping the eggs. “Is something the matter? You’re unusually quiet.”

“Pfft, what makes you think something’s wrong?” He tells her, “I’m just all fine and dandy. Though I could be lying and I’ve actually fallen into a terrible depression overnight!”

“You’re concerned about the mermaid, aren’t you?”

That stops Kokichi in his tracks. Kirumi chuckles. “The boss told me to prepare a fish for the mermaid to eat, and I assumed you were concerned about it, as you don’t usually come in here unless it’s to ask when the food is going to be done. If you would like, I could give you the fish to take to the mermaid.”

“Yes.” Kokichi accidentally says without any hesitation. Before he can take it back and lie about how he doesn’t want to take a smelly dead fish to the mermaid, Kirumi is already giving him a tied up cloth. Kokichi tries not to groan at the gross feeling of the fish through the cloth.

“I prepared it before I started making breakfast,” she informed. “Go ahead, I’ll take care of the rest of breakfast and make your plate for you.”

“T-Thanks.”

He hurries out the kitchen and dining room to the top deck; the mermaid is still curled up like a ball, but Kokichi can no longer hear it crying. He strode over to the tank, getting on his knees and opening up the cloth to see that the fish has no head. _‘Gross,’_ he thinks. He taps on the glass, “Hey, uh, I got something for you.”

The mermaid looks up, its eyes puffy and face cherry red. Its eyes widen upon seeing the fish in Kokichi’s hands, then looks up at him. Kokichi reaches up, dropping the fish into the tank. The mermaid then tries to back into the wall behind it, obviously wary of the fish. Kokichi backs away slightly, to give the mermaid just a little space. It keeps looking to the fish back to Kokichi and back again. 

Kokichi remembers being young and upset to tears at times, but he also remembers his closest friend giving him food to ease him. He hopes maybe it’ll be the same for the mermaid.

It takes a few minutes, but ever so slowly does the mermaid inch toward the fish, reaching out to grab it. Slowly, it brings the fish to its face. It sniffs it once, twice, then takes a hesitant bite. That’s when Kokichi sees the incredibly sharp-looking teeth in its mouth. The mermaid takes another bite, and another, devouring the fish at a steady pace until only the very end of the tail remained; it trills in content quietly. Then it looks up at Kokichi, eyes wide and cooing.

Kokichi smiled and chuckled. “You really liked that fish, huh? I’m gonna guess you want another one, so I’ll make sure to ask Tojo-chan for another to feed you, but I need my own breakfast first.” He walked toward the door that led to the dining room once again, waving to the mermaid, “Bye~.”

Back in the dining room, everyone now had a plate of food, including an empty seat. He took a seat in the empty chair, almost immediately being slapped on the back by someone next to him -- it took a lot not to cry out in pain.

“Eyy, Ouma! Nice of ya to join us! We was wondering where you were!” The man next to him said cheerfully. Across from them was another man and a woman eating their food with hearty smiles.

“Yeah!” The second man said, face full of rice, “We wanted to get your opinion on something!”

“Oh?” Ouma inquired.

The woman spoke, “We want to decide on a name for the mermaid, since just calling it ‘the mermaid’ would just get old fast, and we want you to hear what we have so far. I, for one, believe we should just call it ‘Sakana’, because it’s a pretty name like the mermaid, but Reo wants to call it ‘Kai’.”

“But that’s just dumb, Asa,” Reo scoffed. “You do know what Sakana means right? It just feels a bit too on the nose and a bit degrading if we called it ‘fish’.”

“It can’t understand us anyway, so I don’t see a problem with it. Besides, it’s not like it’s any less on the nose than ‘Kai’.”

“It makes sense since mermaids live in the ocean! Plus, I think it’s a nice name.” Reo turned to the other man, “What do you think, Haru?”

Haru piped up, “I think we should name it ‘Sirène’; it’s a rather beautiful name in my opinion.”

Kokichi and another one of his friends knew French, Kokichi just a bit rusty at it. But he knew what that word meant, and he couldn’t help but speak the truth. “That’s literally the most on the nose name suggested. Be more original.”

“Well, then what do you suggest? I dare you to try and come up with something better.”

Kokichi ‘hmm’ed, putting a spoonful of miso soup in his mouth, thinking. He had a sort of theme with nicknaming his friends after food, so he thought of food items that could be also used as names. Not ‘Fish’, though, that was dumb. A seafood related name could be good, but what? Definitely not the name of a fish, like ‘Cod’ or ‘Shrimp’. _‘Shrimp...shrimp...hmm…’_

“Ah-ha! I got it,” Kokichi exclaimed, banging a fist on the table, “I propose we call the mermaid ‘Shumai’. Doesn’t it just roll off the tongue?”

“But isn’t a shumai a food item like a fish is? Though I suppose it’s a little...less on the nose than any of the other names.” Reo replied.

“I still think we should call it ‘Kai’,” Asa said, “but I guess Shumai is a bit cute.”

Haru spoke, “I admit my suggestion was a bit bland, so I guess I agree with Ouma.”

Kokichi grinned. “So we’re all in agreement then?”

“Yes, I assume,” Reo said, “But first I’ll go pitch the suggestion to Boss, see if that’ll work for him.” He stood up and walked toward Kyousuke, who sat at the chair at the very end of the table.

Kokichi continued eating his breakfast, engaging in miscellaneous conversation until the bell that signalled breakfast was over rang. He stuffed the remaining food in his mouth and filed after the others. _‘Wait, shit, I forgot to get another fish from Tojo-chan!’_ But it was too late as everyone in front and behind him made it too tight to squeeze through to try and get another fish, and she would probably be already cleaning up, so it was futile.

Soon enough, everyone was on deck, but before anyone could get started on their work, Kyousuke called out, “Everyone, I want you to line up right over there in a straight line.”

Kokichi heard someone mumble, ‘looks like he’s finally gonna kill us all, alright,’ and another reply, ‘sooner than I thought it’d be but we are pretty big assholes.’ They all got in a line as instructed, and Kokichi noticed Shumai was rigid and looking at Kyousuke with wide eyes. It was most likely at least a little traumatized by what he had done to it, even if it had been to help Shumai.

“I’ve given it some thought,” Kyousuke starts, “And I’ve decided I shall put the mermaid, who one of our crew has graciously decided to name Shumai,” a few giggles from others, “shall be put into the care of one of you until I find someone to research it -- don’t worry, I’ll be sure the scientist I find is trustworthy enough to not hurt it and safely release it back into the ocean. So, who would like to take it home?”

Immediately everyone started clamoring, raising hands, shouting as loud as they could, but Kokichi stayed quiet and still. He did almost want to take care of it, but surely someone else was better equipped for mermaid care. He had nine other people to feed at home, so he probably wouldn’t be able to get food to feed it, though those nine other people could feed Shumai when he was gone.

“Ouma, dear boy.”

Kokichi nearly jumped from Kyousuke’s voice. 

“You shall be the one to have Shumai in your care.”

Everyone began to complain, but Kyousuke quickly shushed them. “Ouma has spent the most time with Shumai, correct? And he did bring that fish I ordered Tojo to prepare to it, so I trust he’ll be able to care for it.”

“Wait, hold on,” Kokichi started, “I can’t possibly take care of it! You know I have nine people at home, and it’s hard enough to feed them, but having to feed a mermaid as well and doing whatever else to care for it? That’s just ludicr-”

“You will be allowed to stay home until I find a trustworthy scientist, you will be paid double for this, you will have free fish delivered to your house for the mermaid, and whatever else you need shall be provided.”

“I’ll do it.” Damn, what was up with him accepting doing things on the spot?

“Good,” Kyousuke replied, “I’ll check up on the mermaid every two weeks when we get to land. Now that we’ve got that settled, everyone, to your stations.”

The crew scrambled to get to their jobs, a few congratulating Kokichi on getting to take Shumai home, and he just stood there. It was a few minutes before he moved again, towards Shumai’s tank. He squatted down, face to face with its now relaxed features. “So, I guess _I’m_ your caretaker now? That’s cool.” Shumai didn’t reply, it didn’t know what Kokichi was saying anyway. “Well, can’t wait for you to meet my family. They’re a pretty odd lot, but that’s what makes my family great.” He wondered what Shumai’s possible family was like.

The rest of the day was spent doing the daily chores, cleaning up the decks, helping catch fish -- one of which Kokichi gave to Shumai, turned out mermaids didn’t like bones in their food either -- and milling about when he found nothing else for himself to do. By the end of the day, he leaned on the nose of the ship, watching the setting sun cast gentle, beautiful golden light upon the orange waves.

“Hey, dick-cheese!” There’s Miu.

“Hello to you too, cumdump.” 

“So, you’re in ownership of the little mermaid now, huh?” Miu cackled, “Good fuckin’ luck with that.”

“Pssh, I don’t need any good luck, I got this all figured out, y’know? _Though_ , I’m not sure how Honey’s gonna feel about this.”

“You already accepted doing this, so it ain’t gonna matter how she feels anyway; she’ll just have to deal with it. Besides, you’ve got all those perks of taking care of the mermaid, so who knows, by the time your job is finished you’ll get that pirate ship you’ve always wanted!”

Kokichi laughed, “Yeah, you’re right. Wow, I’m actually agreeing with the dumb slut about something, that’s unexpected.”

“Hey, I’m gonna be the greatest inventor the world has ever seen, so don’t you be calling me a dumb slut!”

“Oh please, I know you get off on being called dirty things, I can always hear when you and Shirogane-chan do kinky activities, nishishi!”

“Now that’s a fuckin’ lie and you know it! Tsumugi is vanilla as hell!”

“Yep, I lied.” Kokichi wasn’t even interested in Miu and Tsumugi’s sex lives anyway.

Miu groaned, “You’re such a little prick, you know that?”

“Nishishi, but isn’t that an endearing trait of mine?”

“No.”

“Aww.”

They didn’t talk for any longer before the bell for dinner rang. “Welp,” Miu said, “Tohoe got the food ready, and I’m hungry as shit. Better come down before those pigs leave nothing for you.”

“I’ll come down in a second, just give me a bit.”

“A’right, bye Cuckma.”

“Bye bitch.”

Kokichi continued staring out at the ocean, thinking. Maybe he if stared hard enough he’d be able to see a glimpse of the town and its docks on the horizon; but nothing appeared. Then he began to think about the mermaid. Would it bring change to his life, or would it just be another boring figure in his boring life? 

Kokichi placed his bets on the latter.

**Author's Note:**

> The design for Mermaid Saihara (mostly the color of his scales and the leaves on his chest) was heavily inspired by @cinnamonbons on twitter!!! I def suggest checking out their art btw, they draw some really cute pregame saioumas!!
> 
> Tumblr: aqua-phoric  
> Main Twit: @aqua_phoric  
> New Saiouma Twit: @hewwodetective


End file.
